Self-Report for Intrinsic/Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The Work Preference
Inventory was used to measure intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation (Amabile, Hill, Hennessey, &
Tighe, 1994). The intrinsic motivation scale includes 15
items that assess the degree to which respondents enjoy
the challenge of the work at hand. Sample items are ‘‘I
enjoy tackling problems that are completely new to
me’’ and ‘‘I enjoy trying to solve complex problems.’’
Cronbach’s alpha for the intrinsic scale was 0.71. Extrinsic
motivation was also measured with a 15-item scale.
This scale includes items such as ‘‘I am strongly motivated
by the grades I can earn’’ and ‘‘As long as I can
do what I enjoy, I’m not that concerned about exactly
what grades or awards I can earn.’’ Cronbach’s alpha
for the extrinsic scale was 0.65. Each item for both the
intrinsic and extrinsic scale was followed by a four-point
scale where 1 ¼ Never or almost never true of you, 2 ¼ Sometimes true of you, 3 ¼ Often true of you, and 4 ¼ Always or almost always true of you.